Science in the Classroom is a collection of annotated research papers and accompanying teaching materials designed to help students understand the structure and workings of professional scientific research.

Inventioneers App

This engaging science app from Filimundus challenges you to solve problems, like getting a cat out of a tree, using the objects provided. To solve the problems, you have to invent something by positioning the objects where you want them to be on the screen just by touching and dragging them. Because the interface is intuitive, you can experiment and create until the problem is solved. For each problem, there is a resource bank at the bottom of the screen that provides invention parts and "helper" characters you can use to accomplish your goal.

The free version of the app includes 14 inventions to create each with its own engaging format. You can even share your inventions with your friends.

Going Further

This resource encourages your students to use their problem-solving skills to figure out a number of puzzles. Along the way, they learn physics concepts like motion, pushing and pulling, forces, gravity, etc. The way the objects behave in the app mimics the way they would work in real life. The balls bounce realistically, objects teeter precariously if they aren't balanced properly, and they fall the way they're supposed to.

Before your students actually dive into solving one of the problems, you can ask them to make predictions about what they think should happen and then record the actual cause and effect. You also can encourage your students to create their own inventions and share them with their classmates.